Melbourne Taxi Security & Protests - How Forced Ignition Can Help
Comments on Alleged Melbourne Taxi Driver Stabbing & Melbourne Taxi Protests
Nowhere has the absolute need for the Forced Ignition system been demonstrated more poignantly than by the alleged stabbing of a taxi driver in Melbourne this week, and the protests that are currently happening in Melbourne. Click Here For News Coverage
In previous weeks on our website, and in our marketing in the NSW Taxi Council's Meter Magazine, we detailed the need for Forced Ignition systems to be installed, particularly in Sydney taxis.
After Meter magazine went to press, this need was dramatically highlighted by the recent spate of alleged carjackings and taxi fires in Sydney which occurred in late March - click here for more info
Now just a few short weeks later, this latest alleged incident in Melbourne demonstrates shockingly just how immediate the need to improve the safety of taxi drivers is.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Melbourne taxi driver Jalvinder Singh who lies in a hospital right now fighting for his life, and to his family.
Taxi security needs to be dramatically improved, and it needs to be done now, before yet another taxi driver is injured (or worse) on the job.
What can be done to improve taxi safety ?
Carjackings are becoming increasingly violent - what would you do if faced with a scenario like this ?
This morning various media outlets were asking on TV "what can be done to make taxi drivers safer ?"
The Forced Ignition Immobiliser has 4 years of proven, real world use in the United States, protecting drivers and their passengers from the enormous risks posed by carjackers and armed assailants.
It is available right now in Australia and could be immediately put to work to protect taxi drivers, their vehicles, and the community.
In the case of taxi drivers, the Forced Ignition system completely eliminates the need for taxi drivers to try to fight back against armed passengers who are trying to take control of their taxi.
If confronted by an armed passenger attempting to rob the driver and then take control of the taxi, with a Forced Ignition system fitted to the taxi the taxi driver can simply leave the vehicle and let the attacker take the taxi.
The Forced Ignition system then does it job - automatically disabling the taxi within about 400 metres.
This effectively strands the thief or carjacker, and most importantly puts a safe distance between the taxi driver and the often armed assailant.
And since the Forced Ignition system disables the stolen taxi, it also minimises the risk a stolen or carjacked vehicle causing property damage, minimises the risk of damage being caused to the taxi in a high speed crash, minimises the risk of a stolen taxi hitting a pedestrian, and eliminates the risk of a stolen taxi being involved in an extended high speed police pursuit.
When the Forced Ignition Immobiliser was assessed by the US Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization Advisory Council, they concluded that:
"The council is very impressed with this technology – it is a great design and well thought out. It provides a blanket solution to a nationwide issue".
It is clearly now time that this proven blanket solution should be applied to the problems of taxi security in Australia, and Australian taxi drivers should not be criticised for demanding the protection and equipment which they obviously need to be able to be safe while they work.